Westford Academy robotics team ready to test its metal

WESTFORD -- There's a lot of trial and error involved in perfecting a robot so it will do just what you want it to.

But junior Alex McKinley, 16, head programmer for the Westford Academy Robotics team, said he likes to think it's a bit more specific than that.

Prepping for their big state competition in early March, McKinley worked with his peers, 16-year-old juniors Angus Chow and Matt Lotti, to set up their machine called "Marvin." They tried to get the parameters and angles just right, running the bot through a series of movements on a 12-foot-wide playing field.

Westford Academy junior Geoffrey Thomas, 17, left, poses with freshman Jason Kottas, 15, next to their team's robot, named "Ghost Rider." The school's robotics team has worked for months to develop their designs and will go to state competition early next month. Sun / Samantha Allen

The nearly 30-member high-school team has two robots for competition this year -- Marvin and "Ghost Rider." Both did exceptionally well at the qualifying competition earlier this year, earning numerous awards for the team, including the "inspired" accolade.

Now the teenagers are hoping they can go all the way to the regional level through the FIRST Tech Challenge of the U.S. FIRST organization. FIRST is an acronym -- "for inspiration and recognition of science and technology."

The robots, running on directions given to them through programmed computer codes, must perform a number of tasks, including hoisting a flag and dropping cubes into a box. The pressure for team captains junior Vikrant Rao, 16, and senior Matt Raboin, 18, is extreme, but they say they wouldn't have it any other way.

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"We don't really mind it at all," Rao said. "Doing this, people see the skills that everyone here has to offer."

Raboin said he's amazed their team, comprised of lower and upper classmen, has gotten so far already. They started working on the challenge last September.

"It's kind of fulfilling to have a project go on this long," he said. "And I think we'll be able to get success out of it."

The team captains said when they first started out, they only had a box filled with parts.

Physics teacher Bill Bowen, who has coached the team for the last three years, said he's extremely proud of his kids. He's been teaching for the last 20 years and said these students are determined. They ask for extra time to work on their project. Now they're meeting five days a week for at least an hour, and some take homeroom and study hall periods to develop their designs further.

"These kids don't know it, but they are engineering a product to a customer's specifications," Bowen said.

He added that one of the many specifications requires the robot to not be larger than 18 inches square. He said before the game starts, judges at the competition make sure all the robots fit inside a similarly-sized cube. That makes the design of the robot more difficult, because everything must be compartmentalized.

"We don't like that cube," Bowen said. "We fear that cube."

The team will go to competition at Bridgewater State University on March 8. Bowen estimated the team, largely self-funded, has about $5,000 worth of materials invested in both robots.

Some exceptional youngsters are also coming up through the ranks. The middle school-level team in town called the Westford Youth Robotics Club is also heading onto the "World Festival" competition in Missouri this year through First Lego League for their work. They're organized through the community 4-H Club.

Several of the Westford Academy team students said the program started long before at the home of resident Chris Nichols about seven years ago. The high schools have a lot of passion for the challenge in building something so complex.

"It's a fun thing to do," Raboin said. "You go from just talking about the challenge and by the end of it, you have a full-fledged robot that does everything you planned to do. Going from ideas to reality is pretty fun."

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